Freeney doesn’t think quarterbacks will survive in Eagles offense

Eagles quarterback Mike Vick had a hard time staying healthy in Andy Reid’s offense. Vick could have an even harder time staying healthy in Chip Kelly’s offense.

That was Chargers linebacker Dwight Freeney’s biggest takeaway after facing the Eagles on Sunday.

“The problem is with that offense, to be honest with you, is the quarterback position and the pounding the quarterback
takes with that and it’s not college anymore,” Freeney tells Erik Kuselias in an interview to be aired Thursday on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk. “And it’s going to be very interesting to see if a team can actually have a starting quarterback or backup quarterback last through the whole entire year with this type of athlete — not a college athlete — you’re talking about a guy who may be 300 pounds, running a 4.8-whatever it is, hitting your quarterback every time he carries out a fake, whether he has the ball or not. Will the quarterback to be able to last the whole year? That’s the question.”

And they’re always going to move fast. Very fast. So fast that a nine-play drive that tied Sunday’s game against the Chargers late took only 80 seconds off the clock — and left 111 for the Chargers to drive down the field and win it.

But it’s still not as fast as Kelly would like. If the Eagles can cram in more plays, and if Vick and receiver DeSean Jackson can connect on a few more long throws, the man who threw for 428 yards on 58 snaps against San Diego could throw for over 600 yards.

And confuse and this that and the other they did, Dwight. You can thank Rivers for bailing you out so that you can say things like this instead of them interviewing Vick about why you don’t stay healthy.

That’s entirely right. But it’s simply the reality for any of the new mobile QB’s. They’re only going to last as long as their protection holds up. So the odds are against ANY of these new fast QB’s lasting very long if they’re constantly leaving the pocket to run.

The problem with this offense is that it keeps your own defense on the field much longer than normal. In college, the defense would probably be more likely to stop drives early. In the NFL, the offensive talent probably wears down a defense much quicker. So by the end of the game, a team is more likely to drive the field and kick a game winner. This offense is good if you can build a lead or need to come back from a deficit.

Freeney is only partially right though- The offense stresses quick decisions by QB’s, and they spread out formations to make those reads easier for the QB to get rid of the ball and not take hits.

If you watch the Eagles last year, Vick was taking three times the amount of hits that he has been taking this year. He may not last the whole year, but someone with a bigger frame and willingness to slide once in a while certainly could.

I think the offense may be able to last, but the defense is going to get beat up. The Chargers showed long, sustained drives are the way to beat the Eagles. If Chip Kelly wants the offense to go even faster, his defense is going to get absolutely no rest and they’ll just be giving up tons of points. The opposition’s defense, however, should be well-rested enough to stop enough of those 80 second drives to win games.

What Freeney is saying would make sense if…the eagles actually ran that type of offense against his team. Truth of the matter is that the eagles only ran 9 read-option plays against his chargers, and ran a conventional 3 wr, 2 te set for the other 45-50 offensive plays.

Vick simply picked apart their defense like brady or rodgers would, because that’s what the gameplan called for. It’s actually quite impressive how the Eagles are able to change up their schemes based on opponents weaknesses.

Face it Freeney, your defense is awful, just not as awful as the Eagles…

What’s lost in all of the conjecture and hyperbole is the fact that the Eagles haven’t run an incredible amount of plays from scimmage. As a matter of fact they are eight in the league in scrimmage plays. Secondly, Vick will always be an injury liability. But, if you’ve watched the last couple of Eagles games, he is taking far less hits in this offense than he did in the last couple of years with a patch-work O-line.

someone please enlighten me as to how the chip kelly offense is unconventional or unique aside from the tempo? vick is certainly fragile, but i hardly think his odds of getting injured are increased in kelly’s offense.

I was at the Chargers game and Vick hardly got hit? The few hits he did absorb were in the pocket after releasing passes. The few times he ran he got to the sidelines without getting hit. He might have gotten hit a few times on ball facts but I didn’t see it. Will see but I think will see bigger QB’s before we see an end to this offense because its dynamic and puts up points.

Kelly has already proved he can coach in this league, at least offense and special teams. The offense works. The inside and outside zone reads are good plays and there is a place for running the up-tempo offense alot – but not all – of the time. The biggest problem isn’t gassing the defense, it’s the talent level of the defense and the disparity between offense and defense. The offense is ready to win now but they don’t have a big window. The defense is at best two years away.

“They stress more or less, you know what, we’re going to confuse, this, that and the other.”

Dwight needs to stop blabbing on out of pure excitement because of their 1-1 start. Rivers won’t keep this high level of play up and then the weight will fall on the chargers defense and then they’ll crumble like history has proven.

I keep hearing all of this talk about how the defenses are going to hit the QB even if he hands the ball off if he continues to act like he has the ball. Problem is, I’m not seeing it. I watched every snap of the Eagles-Chargers game and the Niners-Hawks, and I don’t remember seeing it once.

I think as tough as these guys talk and how much they insist such a hit would be legal, once they are on the field they are too afraid of getting flagged.

The NFL rules have stated that the QB is fair game if he’s a runer, whether optioning or running. I’d put the biggest and baddest mofo on the QB and hit him hard in the ribs every single time (legally of course).

Vick is taking far less of a beating in this offense then he was in Andy Reid’s offense. The hits are less violent, too. Me thinks Freeney doesn’t have full perspective.

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Actually, I think that YOU might lack perspective.
We’re only two-weeks in, and the Eagles are 1-1, with the one win coming against one of the more dysfunctional teams in the league (now that Griffin is hobbled).

Vick took a bunch of hard hits against the Skins, and was visibly shaken at times. While he didn’t take as many against the Chargers, it doesn’t change the fact that when they play some teams with much better secondary units, he’ll be forced to start running more, as he would have the security blanket of throwing to his receivers. Then, he’ll likely get hurt, like he does every season.

Clearly, the facts concerning his history are contradictory with the notion that he’ll be better off in Chip Kelly’s offense. Sorry.

Well the likelihood of QBs holding up goes down as you get aggressive with the QB rushing the ball. So what is Kelly going to do, hold back Vick and not run a full gamut dynamic system, or is he going to overuse Vick knowing he has Foles to back him up, or will he consider letting Foles play chunks of time within future games? The answer to this question is needed to understand what kind of system is Chip Kelly truly running.

The playbook could be very different in all 3 of those scenarios. So I don’t know what this system is, to me it’s a no-named hybrid messy system of random confusing choices. I don’t know how else to define it until I see more.

The eagles will run the ball on a good secondary and pass on a bad secondary. Vick doesn’t take any more or any less of a beating whether its run happy or pass happy day. Vick gets hurt when he doesn’t slide correctly, the way all QBs slide. The Oline is taken care of finally and Shady CANNOT be stopped, only slowed down due to fatigue. If this defense can ever get a stop for Chip and the boys, it’s looking like an unstoppable O.